Dynamite



UNITED STATES JOHN C. SQHRADER, QF-MGCA'INSVILLE, NEW JERSEY, ASSIGNOR OF'ONE' HALFTO RUSSELL s. PENNIMAN, or JENKINTOWN, PENNSYLVANIA.

DYNAMITE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No, 333,346, dated December 29. 1885.

Application filed June 2, 1884. Serial No. 133,616; (No specimens.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that'l, JOHN G, .SOHRADER, of McCainsville, in the county of Morris and State of New Jersey, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in High Explosive Compounds; and I do hereby declare that the following specification is a clear, true,

7 and complete description of my invention.

So far as; my knowledge eitends, I am the first to invent and produce dry-grained, highgrade nitro-glycerine powders, and although they are made byme in various grades. and containi-ng from ten to forty per cent. of the liquid explosive, they are not so adversely 'afif'ected bylow temperatures as ordinary dynamites, and they are safe in handling and in transportation. My novel powders, being drygrained, can' be as readily and conveniently employed as ordinary black blasting-powders in all connections where a free running powder is deemeddesirable.

The subject hereinafter y claimed is a dry-grained,free-running nitro glycerine powder of high grade, containing a natural absorbent; and my invention consists in a novel compound ,of nitro-glycerine with hard grains or granules capable of housing and internally retaining large proportions of the liquid explosive, because of the presence in said grains of wood pulp orother fibrous vegetable matter serving as a natural absorbent, andalso because said grains are composed in part-of sulphur so' disposed as to constitute as the main part of each grain ahard or friable cellular structure, capable with the pulp of great capillaryabsorption and of .efl'ect" uallyresistingthe softening influences of the nitro-glycerine.

Iuthe production of my compound I deem wood pulp preferable to any other vegetable fibrous matter, although cotton lint, cellulose, sawdust, straw, and many other well-knownand analogous fibrous vegetable bodies may be employed without departure from my invention. l l My grains are compounded substantially as follows: wood pulp,twelve (12) parts; sulphur, twenty-(20) parts; nitrate of soda, sixty-eight (68) parts. These ingredients,inafinely-grcuud I condition, are well mixed and heated until the I ticable,

described v and sulphur melts, whereupon the mass is stirred while cooling, grains or granules; or, while still soft, the said compound isv pressed lightly into cakes, and thereafter grained, as with machines for graining black'powder. The grains thus developed should be as uniform in bulk as may be pracand they should seldom be smaller than could be screened through atWelve-mesh sieve or larger than through a four-niesh sieve, and it is sometimes desirable that the grains be graded by screening. Grains .thus produced-are then charged with nitroglycerine, within their capacity to receive and internally retain therein the liquid explosive.

are charged with, say, forty per cent. of the liquid explosive, and any lesser proportion thereof may be employed for producing pow- 7 ders of lower grades. i r

The proportions of the several ingredients. named may be varied without'departure from my invention, provided there be sufficient sulphur, when melted, to thoroughly control 1 '75 thefib'rousjmatter and to mass it and thenitrate into friable cellular grains; but such an exces-' and thereby developed into If powder of high grade is desired, said grains sive proportion of sulphur-should be'avoided as would result in secluding too much of the fiberfrom absorbent contact with the liquid explosive, and thereby prevent the housing of an efi'ective proportion thereof in each grain.

While the use of nitrate of soda is in every way desirable, it is obvious that if other equivalent salts be employed, or even if the nitrate be omitted,the grains will nevertheless possess their novel cellular characteristics and be capable of taking up and retaining large quantities of the liquidexplosiva'and can be relied upon for effective service; of other ingredients than those mentioned can also be made without departure from-my in vention if each grain contains the fibrohs mat- The addition a ter and has its cellular structure of sulphur;

but no additional ingredient shouldbe employed which willsoplug up or seal the cells or pores of the grains and so insulate the fiber against absorption as to defeat theobject of.

my invention. 2 t g It is to be understood that the grains herein described are inone of several forms of novel roe dope invented by me, which constitute the 7 subject of a separate application for Letters Patent; also,that the process of manufacturing the powders hereinndescribed, as well asother' 5 analogous varieties of my novel powders, constitute the subjects of separate applications filed 'byme.

Having described this portion of my inven ti on, I claim as new and desire to' secure by 10 Letters Patent- The dry-grained explosive coxnpound, substantjally as hereinbefore described, contain ing nitro-g'lycerine housed and retained within hard cellular grains, composed in! whole or in part of a cellular mass of sulphur'and fibrous 1c vegetable matterysubstantially as described, and capableof resisting the softening infinences of the liquid explosive.

' JOHN C. SOHRADER. Witnessesr Y 'JAS. H. NEIGHBOUR, FRANK F. HUMMEL. 

